But many of Canada’s health workers were telling everyone to hear that some provincial governments were reopening too quickly after a difficult post-Christmas wave.
“So we’re stuck, where we have out-of-control cases, completely full hospitals, insufficient vaccine available and months of difficult public health measures ahead,” said Dr. Michael Warner, Michael Garron Hospital’s director of critical care at Toronto, in an interview with CNN.
Provincial governments across the country now have a damaging third wave of Covid-19, which could jeopardize the universal health care system that Canadians are so fiercely proud of.
From coast to coast, through thousands of miles and hundreds of hospitals, many provinces are now anxious to see the number of cases increase as variants of concern spread a more contagious virus to younger Canadians and land more people in the hospital.
And nowhere in Canada is the hospital situation as critical as it is in Ontario, the most populous province in the country.
“The government did not listen to scientists, did not listen to epidemiologists, did not listen to doctors other than their head of medical health. And because they could not listen to scientists, they thought they could negotiate themselves for this virus. , but the virus is too strong, the variant is a different disease, “Warner, who told CNN on Friday that his ICU was working at 115% capacity.
Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford defended his actions on Friday when he announced new restrictions, including extending a stay-at-home order until at least mid-May, banning indoor and outdoor meetings and restriction of non-essential travel in and out of the province.
At a press conference on Friday, Ford insisted he has always acted on science, adding that in the case of recent critical care admissions, he drafted the strictest public health policies “the second” he discovered.
“Even as we get started, it will take time to affect, so right now the trajectories of the Covid climbs are really ready and I think the next 2 to 3 weeks for Ontario and Canada will be very, very, very hard.” Said Dr. Fahad Razak, who treats coronavirus patients at St. John’s Hospital. Michael’s of Toronto.
On Saturday, Ontario broke new records for both hospital and ICU admissions. The model published by the province’s expert advisory group, Frida, detailed a terrible snapshot of the crisis already unfolding in hospitals and how the situation is likely to get even worse.
“Note that our hospitals can no longer function normally, they are bursting at the seams, we are setting up field hospitals and separating critical patients from their families by helicopter across the province to care for them. Admitting adults as patients. This has never happened in Ontario before it has never happened in Canada, “said Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, Ontario’s co-chair of scientific advice.
Brown was surprisingly blunt about the worst cases he could see in Ontario’s rationing care, especially finding critical points for patients saying, “There may not be a chance to put them in this type of bed.” .
“We will be there, we will do our best, but I am trained to save people, not to use a checklist to decide if people are going to live or die, but this is where we are and it is my biggest fear and I think many health workers are more than angry, I think we are really left with the situation we are in, ”Warner said.
Across Canada, with the exception of the Atlantic provinces that have worked hard to create a “bubble” with some of the lowest incidence rates of Covid-19 in all of North America, epidemiological data have been alarming.
Health Canada reported a 35% increase in hospitalizations and a more than 20% increase in ICU admissions across Canada in the week ending April 11th. Even more worryingly, the trend towards mortality is worrying, with a 38% increase in deaths in the last week alone.
Some public health professionals say many provinces reopened too, too soon. And in Ontario, many health care providers say that, given their scarcity in Canada, vaccines should have been assigned more quickly to marginalized and racialized communities.
In many of Canada’s largest cities, essential workers in factories, meat processing plants and distribution centers have suffered dangerous outbreaks.
Dozens of Ontario doctors have turned to social media demanding that these workers have safer working conditions and easy access to sick pay when they contract the virus or have to be tested.
Most provinces, including British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec, are beginning to concentrate on these jobs and community points of interest with mobile testing and vaccination clinics.
Some health care workers, however, are resigned to these programs not being launched fast enough to save them and their patients from the ravages of a third wave, far worse than the first two.
“Clearly it’s a crisis, now we’re in the midst of a crisis, there’s not a week left, now we’re there,” Razak said.